Remembrance Day: In Flanders Fields poem in full - The Rugby Observer

Remembrance Day: In Flanders Fields poem in full

Rugby Editorial 11th Nov, 2021 Updated: 11th Nov, 2021   0

TODAY marks Armistice Day, the 103rd anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Acts of Remembrance will take place up and down the country this morning.

The Last Post will sound and be followed by a two-minute silence, as we remember all those lost in conflict.

The end of the silence will be marked by the Reveille.




Many will mark the occasion with a reading of In Flanders Fields, the war poem written by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.

He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres.


It was first published on December 8, 1915 and is one of the most quoted poems from the First World War.

In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

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